Last month ICANN, the organization that sets internet protocols and website naming conventions, announced that any “established public or private organization” can now register a top level domain (TLD).

Soon .ibm and .union may be join the ranks of .com, .org, and .net. The price tag to set up one of these vanity domains is $185,000, and ICANN is still working on the renewal fees.

TLDs have been introduced before to mixed results. Some TLD’s like .biz have taken a place as …

One of our clients recently approached us with an interesting problem. The email edition of their newsletter was too long. Readers who were interested in the side stories were giving up rather than reading or even scrolling past the lead story and subscribers who were interested in old articles would have to search issue by issue.

What the client needed was a website which would index and continue stories that began in their newsletter.

Enter WordPress.

WordPress.com is one of most popular blogging sites in the United States, and with some custom programming, it’s open source counterpart becomes …

What is CMS software in the first place?
CMS stands for Content Management System, and for the purposes of this article we will be discussing website content management systems. Web CMS software allows you to easily and efficiently manage a website and all of the associated text, images, and other files without having the technical knowledge of web programming. That being said, as a person who does possess the technical skills of a web developer, I wouldn’t even consider foregoing the great benefits of a CMS for the nostalgic joys of manually managing a website and its content. …

Nowadays most business websites have a Content Management System driving them so their owners can make edits without having to go back to the original web developer. They have become sort of the norm and most business owners request such functionality when purchasing a new site.

If you hire the right web developer, the process of building such a site will be smooth with your having to make some key decisions along the way. However, regardless of how great your web developer is, he will eventually require content from you.

In the past—with static websites—content could be provided in simple Word documents… …

It’s nearly impossible to make a modern website without first building a site map that serves as the basis for the navigational menu. In order to achieve the most user-friendly interface for an audience, a web designer first needs to understand the site’s purpose.  Here are four navigational models that can help match purpose to navigation.
Designing for the Shortest Path
Most websites are designed on the theory that visitors know where they want to go, and would prefer to get there in the fewest number of clicks possible. The best way to accomplish this is to construct a hierarchy for …

MB/I central has become a lively place over the past couple of months. By concentrating representatives from sales, administration, design, programming, and management in one location, Marissa has given us the chance to brainstorm, integrate efforts, and share broad design philosophies even as we work on specific projects.

My own focus, whether testing a new CMS or adding content to an existing site, tends to be on the ease and usability of our systems. The easier it is to find or change information, the more I tend to like a site. …

Trick-or-Treating has been part of the American Halloween tradition for about 80 years, and part of the Scottish Halloween tradition for even longer. October 31 is not the only day known for fancy dress, but if you say the word costume, it is the holiday that will most likely come to mind.

But why do we dress up for holidays? On the one hand, it’s an escape, a way present yourself in a different light. On the other hand, it is a conspicuous way to mark those holidays and traditions you find valuable; few things are more conspicuous than overhauling your …

Looking for original artwork, but don’t have an in-house designer?  DeviantArt (dA) is definitely a good place to start.

Since 2000, dA has been providing an interactive community for artists of all sorts.  The includes the following key features:

• a categorized and searchable gallery of artwork
• feedback space for every work of art in the gallery
• e-commerce interface for artists ready for digital sales

Admittedly, not every artist is prepared to sell their work over the internet, but this does not have to be a dead end.  The deviantArt gallery also includes contact information for the contributing artists, giving you the …

The Pin Poet of Berkeley first introduced me to MOO during a discussion of different media suitable for small form physical branding.

Because of the Printfinity technology that MOO uses, it is possible for a designer to give them any number of custom images and they’ll print a series of cards using every single one (even if this means a different image on every card).

But what really hooked me was their Inspiration page, which highlights different innovative ways to make use of their products, from their hallmark MiniCards …

We’ve all been to websites that offend our senses. It might be the copy, the color, too much flashing or that “something” you just can’t put your mouse on that sends you packing. In working with businesses in all industries and sizes the one common denominator is they all have a website. Unfortunately, not all of them are good and some are flat out annoying. Here are a few easy thought processes you can work through to help provide your visitors with a positive visit to your online office.
Be Clear About It’s Goal
I’m stupefied by the number of clients that …